KUALA LUMPUR: The prosecution in Datuk Seri Najib Razak's corruption trial involving RM42 million of SRC International Sdn Bhd money wrapped up its case today calling on the judge to convict the former Prime Minister of all seven charges.
Lead prosecutor Datuk V.Sithambaram in his closing submission said the prosecution had dealt with all issues raised during the trial to prove its case against Najib.
"If everything is looked at in totality, the seven charges (against Najib) have been proven.
"I have finished my submissions, tomorrow is their day," he said as he ended the prosecution's case against the 67-year old former Finance Minister and also Umno president this evening.
With the prosecution closing its case, lead defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah will be taking centre stage to present the rebuttal submissions on behalf of his client tomorrow.
The senior counsel is expected to take the entire day and continue on Friday if he fails to finish it in a day.
After Shafee completes his submissions, High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali will fix a date to deliver his judgment in the trial which began in April last year.
Najib is facing three counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT), one charge of abusing his position and three counts of money-laundering involving SRC International funds amounting to RM42 million.
The Pekan Member of Parliament is accused of committing the offences between Aug 17, 2011, and Feb 10, 2015.
In his submissions today, Sithambaram touched on key evidence which had been heard during the trial and said everything pointed to Najib's guilt.
He said Najib was fully aware of everything that happened involving the RM42 million right from the time the money left SRC International coffers and ended up in his personal account.
Sithambaram dismissed the defence arguments that Najib's mindset at that time was that the money in his account was part of Arab donations that he had received from the late King Abdullah Abdulaziz Al Saud.
He said all the money which Najib claimed was from the Arab donation was gone by the time the SRC International money was being pumped into his account.
On the defence claims that people like fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low had manipulated his account, the deputy public prosecutor said such claim was nothing but a myth.
"They (the defence) are making a lot of hue and cry that the accused was misled to believe he still had Arab funds when he used up the RM42 million.
"This is nothing but a myth. The fact that RM42 million came into his account is not disputed....he is just saying that he did not know it was SRC money.
"This is ridiculous. Any reasonable person, in particular a man of finance will know or ought to have known what was going on," he said.
Sithambaram said Jho Low had actually bankrolled Najib to the tune of RM86 million within a period of six months between September 2014 and December 2015.
He said SRC International had nothing to show in all the years it was formed except for RM9.3 billion debt that the country was left to deal with.
He said that Najib's claim that the company's formation was in the interest of the country as it needed to venture into energy and other natural resources was not true.
He said there were no checks and balances ever initiated to ensure the company performed but instead everything was rushed to the extent that RM4 billion loan was released even though the company had nothing to show for it.
"This is definitely not national interest…," he said before ending his submissions.
